A South African artist is causing a stir on YouTube. The Kiffness accumulates millions of views with its electro remixes of songs from around the world found on the internet. His latest video titled It’s A Beautiful Day resumes a sung gospel a cappella by a Jamaican child. David Scott, known as “The Kiffness”, is a 34-year-old South African who took advantage of the Covid-19 confinements to put his talents as a musician and youtuber to good use. It is from his studio in Plettenberg, on the South African coast, that he talks about the recipe for his success.
For The Kiffness, it all starts with finding a good video. The Turkish Bilal with his dabourka had already made the buzz, but he was going to change dimension thanks to the remix of The Kiffness. The video has 50 million views. ” This is my first viral videohe explains. After this one, people kept sharing videos with me asking me to remix them. Someone shared a cat video to me to see if I could remix it. I had no idea what it would look like but I did it and it turned out much better than I could imagine “. Since then, cats have been a regular part of his repertoire.
When David Scott remixes a video found on the Internet, he contacts the person to share the copyright. Like Rushawn, the little Jamaican who appears in his latest video. ” I was at a dead end, I only knew his first namesays The Kiffness. Right after posting the video, someone contacted me to tell me that he knew this person and I managed to get in touch with him. We managed to get everyone paid “.
Since he also likes to make videos with cats, and he cannot pay for them, The Kiffness made a donation to the humane society.
“YouTube can propel your production around the world”
Row Weber, is the manager of The Kiffness and accompanies other artists. He explains why some turn to YouTube. ” It’s pretty easy to connect with a huge network of creative people and with people who love watching videos. Exchanging videos, music, has become very simple and that’s why Youtube, in its capacity as a digital giant, can propel your production around the world. “, he deciphers.
” Of course, there are always loopholes that people can use to infringe copyright. But if you’ve done the necessary work to frame and protect your music, YouTube will help. And if you have achieved a certain success, YouTube will contact you and send you a plaque that certifies that you have 100 000 subscribers or more so they really want to work with you “, he concludes.